Adventure of a Lifetime
by coolnamegoeshere
Summary: A resident of Rogueport, leaning heavily on one dream, gets a lot more than he expected in what will certainly be an Adventure of a Lifetime. AU, contains one OC, COMPLETELY RESTARTING AS NEW UPLOAD
1. Chapter 1

I've seen those battles before... all those fancy battles over at the Glitz Pit. I guess you can say I'm just another fan, until you hear that I wanted to be a fighter myself. See, a lot of people think I wouldn't last long in the whole thing, even though I've had my share of fights in the 'bad side' of Rogueport.

"These guys are way tougher than you!"

"Lex, save yourself the trouble and just watch the fights!"

"Who do you think you are, the Rawk Hawk himself? Get outta here!"

Every one of them that I announced my dream to, they just told me to basically give it up...

but it'll take more than just words to change my mind. Besides, I might even have a few tricks of my own... well technically they won't be truly _my_ tricks, more of using them as inspiration. Still, I doubt they'd think of it anyway, and I admit I ain't nothing like that Mario guy I've heard about, but I'll definitely need a few badges to help me out... and a _lot_ of coins to even get those badges to begin with! Oh wait, that's why I'm doing the Happy Lucky Lottery, since the trouble center probably won't get me enough in time... actually, if I remember something right... I could try my luck with the Pianta Syndicate and see if I could get my ticket that way... or have more than just my hopes dashed in less than a heartbeat, but I've waited too long for this moment. I walked all the way over to the west side of town and into the shop there, where I was greeted like all shop owners do in town. Good thing I had enough coins for what I needed, since that dizzy dial is what made me concerned. Anyway, I bought the dried shroom first as a small snack, then I bought the dizzy dial afterward.

"Yeah, yeah..." the shop owner suddenly said, "Ok mister, what color's your mustache?"

"Last I checked it was brown," I answered jokingly.

"Wait a minute... that wasn't the right question! Let's do this again... ok, what's your favorite color?" I chuckled a little bit, then said 'yellow' like I knew the answer. "Mhm, you check out. You must be with Don Pianta himself." She floated over to a part of the wall and fiddled with it a bit. "You can go through. Go on with your bad self." Without saying a word, but imitating a salute, I went through the door and up the stairs, then walked inside the very headquarters of the big boss himself, Don Pianta. I wasn't surprised to see that the place looked a little fancy, I mean he _is_ the leader of the syndicate as far as I've heard, but Ihad a hard time keeping a straight face when I noticed he looked a bit... angry.

"What's wid you, wise guy?" he snapped at me, proving he was none too happy at all, "I ain't too jolly today, so if you got a beef, spit it out quick or dis'll hurt real bad." I told him what I wanted, and he almost laughed at me... almost. "Ex-_cuse_ me? You want a ticket for da blimp? You oughta be a stand-up comedian, dat was so funny. You got some nerve askin' me for dat. I'm Don Pianta! I make cryin' babies weep!"

"So I'm desperate," I said to him, but before I could continue, his associates interrupted me and asked him if they could, as they put it, "run me out on a rail."

"Not so fast, boys," Don said, "Talkin's no crime and he wants a talk, so we talk. Now, as you were sayin'..."

"Long story short," I resumed, "I only know a little bit about ya, but I know how you like to do things, so how about I do ya a favor for that ticket?"

"W-wait a minute, boss!" one of the associates started to say, " We don't know nothin' 'bout dis guy! You can't trust some loon for dis!"

"I hope you ain't complainin' about his decision," I said to the same associate, who almost immediately straightened up.

"I dunno what I was thinkin'. Whatever da boss says, goes. It won't happen again, boss."

"Say, dis kid might not be so bad after all. Since you're willin' ta work wit me, I do, in fact, have a favor for ya."

"Name it," I said to him bluntly.

"It's easy, less dan nothin'. See, da thing is... my own daughter... eloped with one of my young... associates, and dey vanished... but it wasn't too long ago that dey did. Dey oughta still be nearby." He then told me what I needed to do: find her daughter, Francesca, and the associate she is with, and bring them to him. If I couldn't bring them over, I had to just say where they are and he'd take care of it himself with, in his own words, "extreme prejudice." Coming from the words of the almost legendary Don Pianta, there was simply no excuse not to find them. However, I did come up with an idea...

"Mind if I say somethin', sir?"

"You ain't backin' outta dis, are you?"

"Nah, if I tell them to go back to ya, they might run further away, so maybe I should just find 'em without bein' seen, then tell you where they are so you can get 'em while I leave 'em none smarter?" He thought deeply about this. "Look at it this way, if they see me and you find out they ain't where I say they are, I get stuck holding the bag. I'd rather have them found and not run off so you can get what you want and my luck stays just fine. Everybody's happy." After a couple nerve-wracking minutes, he made his decision.

"Alright. You go find dem and tell me where dey are, an' I'll take care of dis from there. Got me?" I nod at him, secretly thankful my alternative option payed off. "It's settled, den. Find my daughter and her... friend, den come see me."

"I'm on it," was the only thing I said before I went off to find them. It's amazing just what you might learn from watching tv.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: a certain character's... personality, is totally inspired by MessengerofDreams' "A Seat Above a Galaxy." If you've read it before, you'll know who I'm talking about, but if you haven't... don't worry, you'll see who it is very soon. Oh, and any Smash Brothers players will recognize a special move that's mentioned here too. :)**

If I were someone who wanted to run away, chances are I'd go to the harbor so that I wouldn't be in such a risk of discovery, so that's where I went to start looking for them. On my way there, however, I saw someone in a green shirt, blue overalls and a green hat with the letter 'L' on the front, right in the middle of the town square. If anyone doesn't know this guy, chances are they wouldn't know about Mario either.

"Well, hi there," I called out to him as I approached, "Been a while, hasn't it?"

"Yes, it certainly has," he responded, who was none other than Luigi, "Any progress on your ambition?"

"Just a little. I have to do a few things in exchange for a chance at it, but after that I should be all set." He chuckled at me a little.

"Not quite. You still need more training if you want to even survive the major league."

"Ain't that the truth. At least I'm hoping I can pick up a few skills here and there during the fights, but I might as well ask for more right after I'm done with what I have to do, just to be safe. And yes, I still want to learn your fancy secret move." Luigi laughed softly at what I called the potentially devastating "Fire Jump Punch."

"The move is no secret, it's only the timing window is very small to get it just right."

"Yeah yeah, but if they even suspect you coming after them with it, they'll run like blind chickens just to make you miss that window... at least it's worth the effort when you get it right."

"Indeed, although it makes things much easier if you make them helpless before then." We continued discussing the strategy of his very special move for a little while longer before we parted ways and I continued my way to the harbor, and sure enough, I saw Mr. Pianta's daughter, Francesca with her so-called friend waiting for a ship to come by, so I hurried my way all the way over to the Pianta Syndicate to tell the head honcho himself that they're in the harbor.

"Rogueport Harbor, eh?" he said to me in a bit of a surprise, "Ain't that a fact?"

"Yep, but you might want to hurry in case-"

"Daddy, wait!" I did not expect that at all. Francesca, and her friend, the boss' associate, ran right in the room and pretty much turned it into something like I'd see in a soap opera, but in the end, they were free to go off and be happy with each other, which was all well and good with me.

"Yeesh," I started to say, "Talk about a soap opera right there... but at least she's happy. All the mushy stuff aside, we did have a deal." I started to write something on a small piece of paper as he prepared the blimp ticket to Glitzville, at long last.

"Yeah... yeah we did. You did manage to find 'em and tell me where dey were, so here. I knew you were da right man for da job..." He placed the ticket on his desk for me to take, and I traded it with the note I wrote while he turned away, which said that I was already gone, then left before he could really say anything else. My dreams are now one more step closer... but then I had to get back to Luigi for that fancy secret move, so I just made my way back to him, ticket in hand, back to him, discussed a few things with him, then we walked over to the sewer entrance and went straight underground for his own personal training for me.


	3. Chapter 3

It might have taken me a couple weeks, even though I expected longer, but I felt like I was ready to head off to the Glitz Pit and finally get this dream started for once... oh yeah, and Luigi taught me how to use the Fire Jump Punch too, but since it's a fire type attack with the perfect timing, anybody who's resistant or immune to fire will pretty much render this attack hopeless, so I can't rely on it, especially if I miss the timing window...

"Take it from me," Luigi said, "You've seen how weak the attack is when I mistimed it."

"Yeah, you probably could do just as much damage flicking your fingers at their forehead!"

"Exactly, so you are better off using it as a kind of finishing move, in a way, or when the opponent is completely distracted."

"Right, anything else?"

"Try not to get completely destroyed in there." I rolled my eyes at that remark, then I said goodbye and was finally truly on my way to the Glitz Pit. "Oh, no you don't." I spoke too soon...

"What is it this time, Luigi?"

"You'll need a couple badges to help you survive the whole thing." He showed me the badges; one of which I instantly recognized as a Last Stand badge, and the other one I wasn't quite sure about. It had a fist on it, but I don't remember seeing that badge before. No doubt the Last Stand badge will help me out if I'm just not doing so well, but I'll need to see if I can get some information on the other one. Regardless, I took them both and pinned them on either sleeve of my shirt.

"Thanks, man. Any idea what this badge with a fist is?"

"Actually, no. I bought this from the merchant Charlieton just because he couldn't find anyone who would buy it."

"Nobody would take it? He had to have been upset over it."

"Just a little, since he had other things he could sell... ah, never mind this. The longer you wait, the easier it'll be to miss your chance, so you should start your way to Glitzville." He wasn't kidding; I needed to hightail it over to the blimp before it starts its routine trip to the city, so I made my way out of the underground sewers, and walked a little quicker than usual so I wouldn't miss the ride. When I eventually walked up to the person that I needed to see for the blimp ride, (I forgot what they called them) he told me I was actually a bit early.

"Early?" I said to him, a little surprised.

"Yes, the blimp's next scheduled departure isn't for another half an hour."

"And here I thought I was gonna miss it! Oh well, I'll come back later then."

"We look forward to your next flight on Cheep Blimps." Relieved that I wasn't going to miss the flight, at least not this time, I started walking back toward the town square, then got bored and decided to take a route into a back alley. There's almost always something going on in the back alleys of this town, so I knew I'd find something to do- Wow, I didn't have to wait long this time: I started to hear some sobbing somewhere, so I started looking... but I couldn't find where it was coming from at all, even after I thought for sure that I looked everywhere... except for one other place: the back of a house that was notorious for it's rancid smell. No one was stupid enough to actually want to be _inside_ that house, but there were some brave souls who attempted to go near it. Since I couldn't find where the sobs were coming from before, that house was my last shot. Turned out I was right: there was someone hiding near that infamous abode, but I don't think I'd want to understand why they were here unless they were desperate. I didn't have much choice but to try to find out who this poor soul is and what problems they almost certainly have, so I fought through the bad smell and tried calling out to the person, who was sitting down and facing a wall.

"What's the problem?" I must have gotten their attention, since the sobbing started to die down, but after a minute without a response, I repeated the question. I used this time to actually look at them carefully, but I could never figure out where the person was from at all. They had a red and white striped tall hat and pink hair, which kind of surprised me, but what made me confused was that they had dark purple skin with no legs. The person's body seemed to just snake toward the ground without a tail. It was really hard to describe a sight I've never seen before.

"Beldam hates me..." the person spoke in a sad tone and medium-high pitch, "She always punishes me for everything."

"Beldam?" I responded, "Who's that?" I could tell this poor soul was hesitating to tell me, so it was clear that they were afraid of this 'Beldam' person. I didn't expect them to actually tell me, though. Beldam was the sister who was giving the mysterious person a very hard time, and most of which was for minor inconveniences or for no reason at all. I couldn't let them just suffer like that, so I slowly walked up to them and gently patted their back.

"Almost everyone would see that you're bein' abused. I'm just glad I found you first so I can help you out." They slowly glanced at me like I lost my mind, but I assured them that I will actually help. "I know it might not be easy for you to trust some totally random person for this, but nobody likes to deal with abuse at all; just gimme a chance." The silence between the two of us was deafening and lasted for over a minute, but the unknown person finally decided to turn to face me and give me a chance to prove that I will help. "Alright. I'll give ya some time to get used to being around me, but I've only got a few extra minutes before I have to leave town to chase a dream I have."

"I guess you won't be able to actually help then..."

"Not now, I'm afraid, but I'll at least get you some well-deserved rest from your troubles. The inn's not far from here anyhow."

"Don't you even know who I am?"

"Nope, but I can't just leave you out here either. These alleys just ain't safe, now come on, before things can get worse." Wasting no time, the person managed to gather the courage to step right toward me, then we slowly made our way toward the juice parlor across the alley, in case there was any serious damage, and up the stairs to the inn itself to help the strange-looking person onto a bed.

"Take it easy on this one," I said to the innkeeper, "I think they've had to deal with quite a bit of trouble lately." Unfortunately, I couldn't stay for very long since I had a feeling I was going to be late for the blimp, so I had to say goodbye and get to the blimp before I missed it and had to wait for the next one.

Thankfully, I made it just in time.


End file.
